Whitstable – the place to buy a property?

 

Information is so important when making decisions on what (or not) to buy when investing in Canterbury property. The demand for rental properties is much greater that the supply and some circumstances, we have four to five prospective tenants for each decent property. As always the demand is much greater for properties that are good areas. Also, we are noticing that tenants are staying longer in their chosen property, with some tenants signing for the third and fourth years. This is obviously causing problems from the supply side so we are relying on new investment Landlords to bring in some new properties.

 

Today, I want to look at Whitstable to the North of Canterbury. By knowing the different areas of Central and North Kent, I can weigh up potential hotspots in the rental market and show potential landlords where there could be an opportunity. The majority of properties sold in Whitstable during the last 12 months were detached properties which on average sold for £370,100. Semi-detached properties had an average sold price of £256,100 and terraced properties averaged at £266,900. The overall average property in Whitstable is worth £282,000, which as one would expect is similar than Tankerton average at £292,400 but was cheaper than next door Chestfield at £334,700.

 

In Whitstable, there are 31,822 people living in 14,136 properties. It is the home ownership percentages that really got me interested, as it is this information, tied in with our intimate knowledge of the market, where we can match tenant demand to an under supply of rental properties. In Whitstable, of those 14,136 households, 77.2% own their property (compared to the Canterbury average of 65.9%).

 

There are only 1,660 rented properties in Whitstable are in the private rented sector (11.7% of Whitstable properties are privately rented compared with the Canterbury average of 17.52%). The reason the private rental sector is much lower is that Whitstable has a high proportion of homeowners and hardly any local authority housing. The properties do sell well, in fact 699 properties have changed hands in the last 12 months. However, with such excellent demand from homeowners and tenants, this could be the right area to purchase your next buy to let investment. 

 

Therefore, if you are considering buying a property for investment in the near future, I am always happy to give you my considered opinion on which property to buy (or not as the case may be) to give you what you want from your investment. If you are a landlord, new or old, I am certainly more than happy for you to pick up the phone or visit the CanterburyProperty Blog  www.canterburypropertyblog.com .